09/10/2013

Tipping your sommelier, change in the rules?

Two weeks ago I had the great pleasure of going to Gramercy Tavern with a reader. He chose the wine, and man, did he do it well, a 1981 Tondonia that was positively brilliant and reinforced my belief in wine as an extraordinary life force. A beauty. Ethereal, grace, power. A tour de force. A humbling experience. And it was one of the better prices around town at $375, more than our food bill.

At the end of the meal, when the gentleman asked me how he should tip, I was a little surprised and wondered, as I am prone to insane self doubt, had I gotten it all wrong? I thought the common practice was 20% on it all, unless service was inept.

But I was curious. In the old days there was a 'wine captain fee.' Hardly anyone used it. Sometimes money was pressed into palms. In any event, until recently it seemed, many people resented tipping on the beverage, not realizing the time and effort it took to create a great list and maintain it.

The several recent lawsuits against New York restaurants regarding pay distribution seem to have resulted in several top NY sommeliers being paid straight salary, as you would a manager. If they perform manager functions, they generally aren't in the tip pool. Perhaps on top of that there are bonuses related to sales or cost. If they are in the tip pool, they generally aren't managers, so you might have a situation where the Head Sommelier is a manager, and the Floor Sommeliers working for him or her are in the tip pool somehow. It is actually up to the employees of each restaurant as to how tips should be distributed. Management can make suggestions and facilitate, but the employees have to give their consent.

Pascaline Lepeltier at Rouge Tomate per Levi's note, is one of those not in the tipping pool, which will surprise many of her guests who adore her. When she goes out, though, she shares Juliette Pope's (Gramercy Tavern's) philosophy (and for that matter mine,) take which is to tip 20% and everything but if the bottle reaches a certain amount (usually in the over five figure category) you don't need too - usually 10, 15% will suffice.

Lee Campbell, professional extraordinaire said: I don't know that I'm the person to ask as Brooklyn tipping is a lot more mellow. Not too many weird machinations, but also cheaper bottles than many of the Manhattan restos I've worked in.

What I can say, is that in general, less sommelier palming that there was in the high-flying years (before 2008). But overall, I see less weird stuff with the bill. Certainly in the past, I sometimes saw weird separations and people also trying to tip smaller percentages on expensive wine. But with pooled tip houses, separate bills don't really put more cash in the sommelier's pocket.

In the past, some people who spent a whole lot on wine ($500+) would just tip the whole bill at a lower rate...10-15%.

It was like they were saying it doesn't take that much more work to open up expensive wine. But they never seemed to understand the work that went into procurement, training, storage and the risk of having to take wine back.

The only thing I see a bit of these days is people who want to take care of the wine bill because they realize their co-diners don't have the same resources, or aren't as geeked out as they are and wouldn't have naturally have spent as much money if they weren't there. I used to see that back in the say as well. So that's a nice thing that persists.

In the past there was a financial incentive to lead the diner to something great, and the loss of htat is one of the downsides Dalton sees of today's system. "In general, what is missing is any financial incentive for a sommelier to down-sell a customer. If a customer is considering a $120 bottle and the sommelier recommends an $85 bottle instead, that might be the right recommendation for the customer and the moment, but it won't be rewarded financially.

But to someone like Aldo Sohm, this ain't a problem. He responded this way, "Since we're pretty straight organized at Le Bernadin, and the captains and cashier take care of the checks, so I honestly don't know the answer. It is not in my nature to look what someone tipped - that would spoil the beauty of being in this industry for me. I'm not sure if that's helpful to you?

Yes, Aldo. It was very helpful. And so were all of you who participated.

So, here's what I think. I am sorry that direct tipping to the sommelier is not par for the course. I am sorry it is in some cases verbotten, not right, it seems. So what to do? If you're a regular at a restaurant give your normal tip, on the entire bill. But if want to give your extra appreciation to the sommelier who goes out of her/his way, especially if you're a collector and have the means, give them gifts of very special wines, or even partial bottles. Go in with something open and say, hey you have to taste this.

The wine will go into their glasses, they'll share and the good will will go on.

After all, a sommelier is in the business for the wine and the love, so show them the love they can pocket and appreciate. And to those of us who don't have great collections, what can we do? A good tip, especially if they are allowed in the 'pool.' Definitely return, and share your verbal love of the wine with the sommelier. Write to management about how valuable the sommelier is to you as a diner. It seems with sommeliers, good old fashioned gratitude is payment in itself. That might be outmoded but it sure is inspirational.

Comments

The only time I can say I've for sure directly tipped a som (that I remember), was a night when I was out with a rowdy group, and he put up with us and simultaneously killed it on the wines. Someone else took care of the bill but I slipped him some cash. My presumption was that he would probably share it, but I wanted him to know his work was appreciated.

To add to this conversation, in January new IRS rues will take place. According the WSJ, "Starting in January, the Internal Revenue Service will begin classifying those automatic gratuities as service charges—which it treats as regular wages, subject to payroll tax withholding—instead of tips, which restaurants leave up to the employees to report as income." http://goo.gl/KsybAS

"with this new rule, some restaurants are dropping the automatic tip. Instead of servers getting to take home their tips at the end of the night, the new rule means that ;tips [will be] treated as wages, which requires upfront withholding of federal taxes, and means they won’t see that tip money until payday.'”

and...

"For restaurants that do keep automatic tip, 'the change will complicate payroll accounting for restaurants that stick with automatic tips, because they will need to factor those tips into pay, meaning hourly pay rates—could vary day to day depending on how many large parties are served.'”

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